


Heart to Heart: Snowfall

by elctrcktty



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Love Confessions, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 00:50:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16378259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elctrcktty/pseuds/elctrcktty
Summary: Jin and Malos get caught in a blizzard. Some buried feelings are brought to light.





	Heart to Heart: Snowfall

**Author's Note:**

> Set after the Torna DLC, but before the main game. Lora is mentioned pretty heavily but I didn't tag her since she's yknow. Dead.

The blizzard swirled around them. Wind scathed their skin as they cut through the storm, struggling to push through the wall of snow piled beneath them. Jin watched as Malos’s feet sunk into the snow, then lifted out with seemingly no effort at all. Although Jin was wholly unbothered by the icy cold, he was beginning to get tired of trudging through the rough terrain. Every once and a while he would stub his toes on rocks he couldn’t see, causing his breath to hitch in a sharp gasp of pain. Each time, Malos would look back with concern in his eyes. Then, seeing Jin hadn’t collapsed yet, he turned around and kept moving forward.

Jin would’ve suggested they stop if he thought Malos would agree. His new - boss? friend? no, partner - his new partner was dead set on finding Mythra and forcing her to fix his shattered core, and they had an informant to reach in the capital city of Tantal. Unfortunately, a little mishap during a merc mission not too long ago had got them labelled fugitives, so they couldn’t just dock the Monoceros close to the city where it could be seen. So here they were, hiking through the violent blizzard and trying not to get blown over.

At least Jin was. Malos seemed an unmovable object, braced against the wind, not even swaying under its force. Jin thought he must not have felt the storm at all.

Until Malos stumbled and fell over.

“Malos, are you okay?” Jin was at his side instantly, pulling his face out of the snow. Only now that he was looking closely did he see that Malos was trembling, his skin turning blue, his eyes a bit dull.

“I’m fine,” Malos said shakily. “I’m just a little cold. It’s nothing.”

“What are you... nothing? You’re freezing!” Jin said hotly, pressing a hand to Malos’s cheek. The contact only seemed to intensify Malos’s shivering, and Jin pulled his hand away guiltily.

“Like I said, I’m fine. Calm down,” Malos snapped. He tried to stand up, but ended up tumbling down again, this time sprawled against Jin’s chest.

“No, you are not,” Jin said. “We have to get to a cave and build a fire.”

“I said-“

“No!”

-

The cave they ended up in was just large enough to fit both of them, and just deep enough that the blizzard’s harsh winds didn’t quite reach inside. Jin focused all his energy on manipulating the molecules around a few dry twigs he had found, and after a few minutes of hushed cursing, he managed to light a small fire. He pushed Malos towards it and started removing the man’s heavy armor.

“Hey, take me to dinner first,” Malos said. The flirting would’ve been funny if he wasn’t still shaking. It was always funny when Malos made fun of how often they were mistaken as a couple, or mocked the idea of a romance between them. It _was_.

“Your outer armor is wet from the snow. I have to take it off,” Jin replied.

“It’s armor, Jin. It’s not gonna soak through.”

“Quiet.”

Miraculously, Malos actually shut up. As Jin undid his armor and set it down next to the fire to dry, he was reminded of the few times he did this for Lora when they were on the run. Jin could handle the cold just fine, but Lora could not. After the first time he had to frantically drag her to an inn, dry her freezing clothes, and then nurse her back to health from the sickness that followed, he was careful to make sure they always had a place to stay during the winter. Now, here, with Malos, as he worked to destroy the world he had once tried to protect, those memories seemed ancient and dull.

“Hey, this has been fun and all, but we should get moving. It’s still a long way to the capital,” Malos said not a minute after Jin finished removing his armor.

“No,” Jin snapped. He tried to find the stern tone he had used with Lora a few times when she was little. Judging by Malos’s unimpressed look, it didn’t work.

Malos opened his mouth again, probably to say something stupid, so Jin cut him off firmly. “We’ll stay here until you get warmer or until the storm stops.”

Maybe it was the cold. Maybe it was the unspoken bond between them that kept Jin up at night. But Malos dropped his head down and said, “okay.”

-

Malos hadn’t gotten warmer. It had been maybe 30 minutes of sitting by the fire, and he still looked pale and ragged. Jin wanted to pull him close, to wrap his arms around him, but he knew his unnaturally low body temperature would only make things worse. So instead he sat, watched, and worried.

“Hey. Calm down, will you? I’m not dead.”

Malos slapped a hand to his forehead when Jin only looked at him with scared wide eyes.

“What I mean is, something like this won’t actually hurt me. I’m an Aegis, Jin. I can’t die from something like this,” Malos said. “We can leave at any time. It’s okay.”

“Not until you’re warmer.” At this point, Jin was rocking back and forth on his heels, hands clenched tightly over his chest. Right beneath them, under his armor and undershirt and skin and bones, Lora’s heart beat fast.

Its frantic pace reminded him of the last time he’d failed to protect someone. Long ago, he had knelt by Lora’s side in a damp, dark cave, as a different type of storm raged outside....

Malos looked at him with narrowed eyes and furrowed brows for a bit, before leaning back on his hands and spreading his legs. A devilish smile split his handsome face. Jin thought he might swoon and die all at once.

“You know, there is a way you can help me warm up,” Malos said mischievously.

Jin was at his side instantly. The swiftness of it made Malos laugh. Such a divine sound... “What can I do?”

Malos patted his thighs. “Sit,” he commanded.

Jin looked down to Malos’s lap, confused, then back up to his pretty, wind burned face. “Malos, I’m an ice blade. I can’t warm you up.”

“Jin. Just sit.”

“I... okay.”

Jin swung one of his legs around Malos’s waist so he was crouching above him. He tried to keep his cold body from touching Malos, but before he could react Malos had grabbed his legs and pulled him close so their bodies were pressed together.  
Perched in Malos’s lap, Jin felt his frown deepen. Lora’s heart was pounding now. He could feel it pumping hot blood to his face. He had only blushed a few times since acquiring a human heart, and never with Malos around. Malos seemed enamored with it, brushing his knuckles against Jin’s hot cheeks.

“Malos,” Jin said. Stay calm, stay calm, stay calm....

Malos only hummed. He slipped one hand around Jin’s waist, gently cupping the small of his back.

“Malos,” Jin said again as he felt that hand start to rub circles against his spine. The sensation was perfectly acceptable, not too low to be indecent, not too intimate to be romantic, but still....

“Malos!” A sob.

Malos’s hand was immediately off Jin’s back, hovering around his waist, his other hand gently cupping Jin’s cheek. A few small tears ran down to it, spilled onto Malos’s skin. _Oh no_ , Jin thought, because he knows that his tears are cold, he knows because one time Lora wiped his tears away after a particularly hard battle and she had to snatch her hand back because they were so icy cold -

“Jin!”

Jin looked up. Malos was staring at him with big, worried eyes. His hand stayed firm on Jin’s cheek. Lora’s heart swelled.

“Uh... what....?” Jin managed through his tight throat and dry tongue.

“Hey, uh, calm down, it’s okay, I didn’t mean to upset you or anything, I....” Malos looked frantic, unsure, and Jin realized he’d never seen him like that. Not during the war, not after, not ever. This man - the man who had saved him - was always sure of himself, always confident. Now that he wasn’t, Jin didn’t know what to do.

So he settled on doing something impulsive and very, very stupid. He kissed him.

Malos’s lips were chapped and dry and rough and they sort of hurt to kiss, but Jin kept pressing his lips there until he realized that Malos wasn’t going to kiss him back. Suddenly, shame and anger swept over him and the heart in his chest seized in pain.  
Jin pulled back. Malos stared at him, startled.

“Why do you do this to me?” Jin said, voice strained and tired. The words echoed against the walls of the cave, heavy and uncomfortable. “Why do you always have to mock my feelings for you? Why can’t you just leave it alone?!”

Malos reached for Jin’s hand. “Jin, I-“

“No!” Jin snapped. “No, stop. I know you don’t care about me, I know I’m just a weapon to you, so just let me be that and stop - just stop -“

“Jin!” Malos yelled. His voice was guttural, and it brought Jin back to Torna, back to the brutality and bitterness of the war, when Malos’s victory cries would wash over the battlefield with a vengeance. Except now that same voice was accompanied by soft grey eyes and a gentle hand on his cheek.

“Don’t tell me you’re really that stupid,” Malos said. A lifetime ago, Jin would have flinched at the harsh words. He knew better now. There wasn’t any venom in _that_. “I guess this is my fault, isn’t it? I must not have been clear enough.”

“About... what, exactly?” Jin asked.

“My feelings. For you,” Malos sighed. The heart was still beating fast, but it wasn’t painful anymore, just persistent. “My head’s been clouded with this... fog, I guess, ever since I was born. That’s from Amalthus, I suppose.” Malos brought his other hand to Jin’s back again. “I didn’t even think I was capable of feeling anything else. Friendship, comradery... love. But when I’m with you....”

He trailed off, and they sat in heavy silence for a few minutes. “Yes?” Jin prompted.

“I don’t know. I have no basis for comparison, so I can’t be sure, but... I want to protect you, Jin. I want to be by your side. And I’m not... mocking you, or whatever. I really do like you.”

The heart was pounding again, so loud Jin could barely hear Malos’s confession. “You mean you,” he breathed, “you love me?”

This time it was Malos’s cheeks that turned red. Jin realized with a start that his skin wasn’t pale anymore, and he wasn’t shaking. The fire hadn’t gotten any stronger, and the blizzard still howled outside.

“I don’t really know what love is. But, if I had to guess, I’d say what I feel for you is pretty close.”

Had Jin warmed him up after all?

“Um, Jin?”

Was Jin capable of something like that?

“You gonna say something, or...?”

Was he even allowed to feel this happy?

“Jin, you’re starting to freak me out -“

As it turned out, sometimes kissing made for better conversation than talking.

-

Later, they reached Theosoir in one piece. Malos’s skin was still pink from the wind burn, and Jin’s toes hurt like hell. The pain was no match for the sensation of Malos’s fingers entwined with his own, though.

The heart in his chest was still beating fast. For the first time, Jin thought that it might be his own, not someone else’s.


End file.
